Geo Tagging

Apple has patented a home automation technology that can turn your lights on when you enter your home, fire up your home entertainment system when you're on your way, adjust HVAC settings depending on your activities in remote locations, and untold other applications, Apple Insider has revealed. The system would combine geo-fencing with activity detection, so that not only your location but also your specific activities inform the automated tasks. The patent was awarded today.

The Twitter app for BlackBerry has been updated to version 1.1 in the Beta Zone. This new version of Twitter for BlackBerry will have geotagging capabilities, push mentions, topic autocomplete, and chat-style messaging.

Information has leaked about Apple’s ambitious revamp of MobileMe. The update would give the service geo-tagging, location based check-ins, and video-streaming capabilities. In addition users would have a Facebook style front page with your current location and status updates.

Samsung has revealed two more high optical zoom digital cameras in the aftermath of CES, the HZ35W and HZ30W both presenting an impressive 15x optical zoom and a 24mm wide angle lens. Both camera can also record up to 720P High-Def video.

Nokia have announced a new set of APIs for mapping and navigation, which developers can use to add location-based information - such as showing nearby search results - and display location-based data. The Ovi Navigation Player API and OVI Maps Player API are also joined by the new Ovi SDK, a platform which the company claims can be used by anyone with HTML, CSS and JavaScript coding skills.

Are you tired of tweeting and having to tell people where you are? You only have 140 characters, and that space is precious, right? Well, good news for you. Twitter is offering some geo-tagging APIs for developers, letting them expand on the service before they officially launch it on their website. It's not a surprise that Twitter is quick to latch onto this trend at all, as geo-tagging locations is a pretty big deal now a days, especially when it comes pre-loaded on phones like the HTC Hero (Footprints).

Geotagging and location-based services are fashionable right now, and if you have the right cameraphone then you could already be taking high-resolution shots with embedded GPS data. If, though, you're using a standalone digital camera, it's far more unlikely that it has GPS built in; that's when something like ATP's GPS PhotoFinder mini steps in, a relatively cheap, standalone way to add location information to your photos. OhGizmo have been trying the PhotoFinder mini out, and while it'll do what it claims on the box, you may find the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

As promised, the first new devices out of the Garmin-ASUS partnership are beginning to show their hand. First up is the Garmin-ASUS nuvifone M20, a 2.8-inch touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro device with dualband HSDPA, triband GSM and WiFi b/g. In keeping with the pairing's obsession with location-based services (LBS), GPS and navigation get top billing: it comes preloaded with maps and points of interest (POIs) – hotels, restaurants, stores, fuel stations and more – for North America, Eastern and Western Europe, together with turn-by-turn voice prompts and auto route-recalculation.

Sony have quietly announced a standalone GPS geotagger, the GPS-CS3KA, intended to be used with cameras and camcorders to record the location stills and footage were taken at. The compact device uses the time and date stamp on your photos to match up your location, as stored by the GPS-CS3KA, with the whole process automated by the included Picture Motion Browser software.

The compact and lightweight Jobo’s PhotoGPS grabs GPS data such as country, city, street and point of interest, whenever your digital camera takes a picture. It unique design fits directly on your camera’s flash mount, and the physical locations of the shots taken are determined later with bundle software. The application used to work for Windows XP and Vista only, but now the company has made it available for Mac users.